We believe trophies should be iconic. As considered, as creative and as individual as the designers who win them.

So we didn’t go with the status quo.

We have commissioned Levi Hawken — one of New Zealand’s most distinctive sculptors, whose practice spans cast concrete, wood, bronze and glass, and is rooted in a deep fascination with architecture, materiality and the language of form — to design the NZ Interior Awards trophy from scratch. His work feels at once ancient and entirely contemporary. And what he’s made for us is unlike anything we’ve seen in an awards programme before.

Each award is a sand-cast aluminium block. 100mm tall, powder coated to differentiate tiers, and laser-etched to reveal raw aluminium beneath. Precise, considered, and built to last.

But here’s what makes it unlike any other award in the industry.

It’s not just an object. It’s a system.

Each block connects to the next via a nickel pin. Win again next year — or in five years — and your new block sits on top of the last. Over time the trophy becomes a totem — a Levi Hawken original that grows with your practice, as unique to your studio as the projects that earned it. Alone it’s a complete, beautiful object. Stacked, it becomes something extraordinary.

The surface of each block is where Levi’s hand comes in.

For 2026, it’s a hollow, stepped space sitting within the cast aluminium block — visible through an opening in one face, like a window or a doorway. Each year Levi reimagines the three sculptural faces within the same design language: interior space, architectural geometry, the way light moves through a room. One face is always constant — flat, laser etched, legible. The rest changes. The system stays.

The full design will be unveiled on the night of 23 July.

It’s something worth designing for.

Submissions close midnight, Thursday 4 June.

Finalists announced — Wed 10 June Live presentations — Tues 23 & Wed 24 June, Residium, Parnell Awards Night — Thurs 23 July, St Matthew-in-the-City (tickets selling fast)

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